With two teams vying for their first Stanley Cup set to duke it out, fan excitement in Las Vegas and Washington is at a fever pitch. For those who want to see their team in person, that enthusiasm is translating into some unprecedented Stanley Cup ticket prices, with each of the seven game series carrying an average ticket price of over $1,000 as of Thursday morning.
Wednesday night saw the Washington Capitals advance to their first cup final since 1998, as Alexander Ovechkin and Co. finally got over the hump after winning eight division titles in the last 11 seasons without advancing even to the conference finals, including three Presidents’ Trophy years as the team with the best regular-season record in the NHL. They face the shocking upstart Vegas Golden Knights, who have set a series of new precedents on their way to the finals in their first season. The Golden Knights captured the Pacific Division title – the first true expansion team to accomplish that in any of the four major U.S. sports. They swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, the first expansion team to do so in its first-ever playoff series. Series wins over the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets leave the team’s playoff record at an astonishing 12-3, whipping their fans into a frenzy.
That frenzy is apparent when you take a look at the average prices for tickets sold to home game for both Las Vegas and Washington throughout the current playoffs – Caps fans have seen far lower market prices than those for games in Las Vegas.
Looking forward at the market for the Stanley Cup ticket prices, it’s clear that Vegas still has a higher market than Washington, but only slightly. Caps fans seem to be catching up now that their team has finally gotten over that hurdle.
Tickets for game one in Las Vegas are going for an average price of $1,389, with a minimum “get-in” price of $948 per ticket as of Thursday morning. A premium seat on the glass in section 14 would run you $8,113. Throughout the seven game series, which will run through June 13 should it go the distance, median prices are well over $1,000 per seat when fees are included. Game seven in Las Vegas has a median asking price of over $5,300, more than double the next-highest median price (for game five, also in Vegas).
Looking back at the past few years of Stanley Cup ticket prices, the trend seems to favor much higher prices for teams that aren’t old hat on the road to arguably the most prized trophy in sports. Last year, home games in Nashville had prices that dwarfed those in Pittsburgh. Penguins fans had watched their team hoist the cup four times in franchise history, including the prior season. Nashville was in the finals for the first time.
The same held a year earlier – when only the clinching game six on home ice for the Penguins saw a higher price average than the three home games for the San Jose Sharks – who were also a franchise playing in its first cup final.
The 2018 Stanley Cup finals are the first since 2007 to have two finalists that have never hoisted the trophy facing off to end the season. And that’s only if you don’t count the Ottawa Senators’ historical Stanley Cup victories in the 1920s (the city was without a hockey team from the 1930s until the early 1990s). The last time two franchises with zero Stanley Cups faced off in the final was all the way back in 1999, when the Dallas Stars defeated the Buffalo Sabres with a controversial cup-clinching overtime goal by Hall of Famer Brett Hull.
With so much unique excitement driving Stanley Cup ticket prices into the stratosphere, the best place to find cheap Stanley Cup tickets is at Ticket Club, where members save big on tickets with no service fees. Over all seven games, there is only one – Game 5 in Las Vegas – where Ticket Club isn’t the best price when compared with StubHub and Vivid Seats once all fees and delivery are factored in:
Looking at the best seats in the house, the difference is even more in favor of Ticket Club. A seat in Center Ice Club 15 – on the lower bowl of the stadium – for game one in Las Vegas is going to set any fan hoping to occupy it back with a market this hot. On StubHub, a ticket in Row P would be $4,791 once all the fees are accounted for. On Vivid Seats, the same Row P ticket would put you out $4,646. A member of Ticket Club could score a better seat – down in Row E – for less. $4,164 per ticket – $482 below what Vivid Seats and $627 under StubHub’s prices.
It’s a uniquely charged atmosphere for this Stanley Cup final, as one franchise looks to finally cross a threshold it has been seeking for decades and come oh so close to in recent years and another hoping to complete an unthinkably meteoric rise to the top of the league. Who will hoist the cup? We’ll know soon.
Stanley Cup Tickets at Ticket Club
Game 1 – Washington Capitals at Las Vegas Golden Knights – Monday, May 28 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Game 2 – Washington Capitals at Las Vegas Golden Knights – Wednesday, May 30 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Game 3 – Las Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals – Saturday, June 2 at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
Game 4 – Las Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals – Monday, June 4 at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
Game 5* – Washington Capitals at Las Vegas Golden Knights – Thursday, June 7 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Game 6* – Las Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals – Sunday, June 10 at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.
Game 7* – Washington Capitals at Las Vegas Golden Knights – Wednesday, June 13 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
*if necessary. Please note that any tickets purchased for games that are not played due to a series victory will be refunded in full